Random thoughts of a Birmingham-based political junkie and party hack, Labour member and activist. And a Councillor for the City of Birmingham, representing Acocks Green ward.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Putting the Twit into Twitter

Let's get this straight, I'm no fan of Cllr Gareth Compton. He's a Conservative councillor for Erdington and is, by default, wrong, possibly even as wrong as John Hemming.

But, sending the police to arrest him for questioning following a tweet is a waste of time. Was it offensive? Yes. Was it a daft thing for an elected representative - or anyone else - to say on what is, after all, a public forum? Undoubtedly. He has apologised for any offence caused and that should be an end to the matter. Any further punishment should be in the hands of his party - which has already suspended him - and the electorate in Erdington.

Let's bring some perspective to bear on the matter - nobody was actually going to threaten any form of injury to Ms Alibhai-Brown as a result of seeing Gareth's tweet and I think it rather unlikely that he would make the journey to carry out the deed himself.

On a day when Paul Chambers, who has been punished for an equally unfunny joke tweet about Robin Hood Airport, lost his appeal and found himself saddled with additional prosecution costs, as a further punishment for his challenge, this sort of legal behaviour brings the system into disrepute. The law needs to be changed to consider intent - neither Gareth nor Paul Chambers had any intent of causing injury or loss. Both tweets failed a humour test, but that is not cause for criminal prosecution.